A virtual conduit that transfers high-powered artistic administrators from Houston to San Francisco is apparently still functioning.

On Friday, the San Francisco Symphony announced the appointment of Mark C. Hanson, executive director and CEO of the Houston Symphony for the past seven years, as the incoming executive director of the Bay Area’s largest orchestra.

Hanson, 43, succeeds Walnut Creek resident Brent Assink, who stepped down earlier this year after 18 years in the post.

The orchestra joins San Francisco Opera in raiding the cream of Houston’s artistic crop. David Gockley, the immediate past general director of the S.F. Opera, had been the longtime general director at Houston Grand Opera when he was recruited to helm operations at War Memorial Opera House in 2006.

Hanson previously served as president and executive director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2010. A trained cellist as well as an arts administrator, he is a graduate of Harvard University who trained in a League of American Orchestra management fellowship program that led to positions at the Syracuse Symphony and the New York Philharmonic as well as his stint in Houston.

Sue Gilmore is the book editor for the Bay Area News Group and coordinator of its coverage of classical music. A native of Denver, she joined the organization in 1990 after working for years as a features reporter in Chicago and Sacramento.